My fiancé and I are getting married in less than a year, and while we have been living together for more than five years, there are still a lot of things we’re doing to financially prepare for marriage.
Because we knew each other throughout college, and when we landed our first “real” jobs, we feel like we’ve always had an idea of where one another has stood financially. He supported me as I worked hard to pay for my education, and I stood behind him as he started a shaky career in trades.
Still, there are some things we do need to discuss before tying the knot. We’re having these conversations now to establish where we each stand financially – and you should be too.
Now that we are getting married, we have to ensure that we support each other in meeting our respective financial goals. If one of my fiancé’s biggest financial dreams was to buy a vacation home, it would be a major issue for discussion.
Having this conversation before marriage has also given us a good opportunity to make some joint financial goals. Whether we decide to save for a year of traveling, or aim for early retirement, aligning our financial plans has been a great bonding experience.
Even though my fiancé and I have lived together for quite some time, we don’t have a joint budget because we each have vastly different expenses. For example, I go to a fitness boot camp and spend money on a data plan for my phone. My fiancé spends a lot more on food and gas than I do.
We’re partially combining our finances when we are married, so we’ll need to create a new budget with both of our incomes and all of our expenses. We’re trying to have honest conversations about how much money our “needs” absorb and how much we should devote to our wants. These conversations can be difficult, but are essential because they help us get on the same financial page.
There are some accounts I will be keeping separate from my fiancé’s when we get married. But because we’ll be working towards joint goals, we’ll need to develop some way of saving for the things we think are important as a couple – and that’s a discussion we’re starting now.
I make more money than my fiancé for the same amount of hours worked, so it would be unfair to expect him to put the same amount of money into savings as I do every month. We do have some options – including each saving a percentage of our income. Every couple deals with these decisions differently; it’s good to get these conversations started before getting hitched so as to remove any assumptions you both may have with respect to saving.